Battle of Fort Duquesne

The Battle of Fort Duquesne (1756) was a battle of the French and Indian War that saw Colonial general William Johnson and over 14,000 British troops occupy the fort after defeating General Jacques de Villiers' 7,300 French and Indian troops.

Background
The French constructed a series of forts in the Ohio Valley in 1753, laying their border claims down on the border with Great Britain's Thirteen Colonies, and Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia dispatched Colonel George Washington to force the French out of the forts. A clash at Jumonville Glen in 1754 started an outcry for war in France, and the French capture of Washington and Fort Necessity later that year led to an outcry for war in Britain. Britain sent Edward Braddock with an army of British troops to capture the French fort at Fort Duquesne, which controlled passage to the rest of the Ohio Valley, but the Braddock Expedition was ambushed and Braddock was killed.

In response to these defeats, the British Thirteen Colonies built up armies to fight the French, and the British sent landowner William Johnson to take command of an army of 14,000 troops in northern Virginia as George Washington replenished his army. The British were ordered to secure Fort Niagara and the Algonquin Territory to the north, giving Great Britain control of the Ohio Valley. However, General Jacques de Villiers and 7,300 troops occupied Fort Duquesne, which blocked the British advance north.

Battle
Johnson had enough troops to assault the fort, so he settled on the decision to attack Duquesne and flush the French out. Johnson's army lay on the opposite side of a creek, so they would first have to find a ford before moving on the fort itself. Because of the locations of the fords, Johnson's forces were divided into three armies (the southern force being the main force and largest).

The army defending the fort was primarily composed of Huron musketeers in France's service, with the few French marine units holding the exterior of the fort and the interior being defended by the Huron warriors under Tasunke Yuima. Johnson's main force repelled a charge of French colonial cavalry and routed two regiments of marines, while the two armies to the west were held back at a bridge by a single regiment of marines. One army of that group headed farther north and marched around the bridge to a ford to the far north. General Villiers led a cavalry charge out of the southern gate in a brave movement, but Villiers and many of his bodyguards were gunned down by British forces. The southern British army proceeded to repel a Huron attack from scaling ropes laid against the wall by the British, and they proceeded to climb over the walls and attack the Huron garrison. Even when the gatehouse was captured, however, one unit of Huron musketeers held the gate, and they were killed to the last man.

The British units stalled at the bridge entered melee and charged the French marines, routing them at the same time as the British units at the gates routed the Hurons. They moved on Duquesne from the west and the army to the north closed in, routing French cannon positions around the fort. Johnson's men eventually set up new scaling ropes and climbed the vacant walls of the fort, and captured it. The remaining French units fled in panic, making it to Fort Niagara.

Aftermath
3,640 Colonial troops and 6,690 French troops were lost, and Johnson proceeded on to capture Fort Niagara shortly after, destroying the French army trapped in the fort.